As Kharghar traffic cops turn a blind eye, autos continue to flout every rule in the book

 

 

I have been a resident of Kharghar, since the year 2001 and have seen the node grow from a scratch. As the area expanded and developed, the menace and arrogance of autowallahs in this node also grew.

Earlier, they opposed entry of NMMT buses and charged an arbitrary amount even for a small distance, which inconvenienced the young and old alike, while the situation far and large remains the same even today, the fresh problem in recent years is the mushrooming of share auto stands in every nook and corner of the sectors with autos parked in the manner blocking the traffic flow. The less I speak of these autos abiding by the traffic laws the better it is. 

What is perhaps more disturbing is the fact that the law enforcement agencies – the Navi Mumbai traffic department and the Regional Transport Office (RTO) rarely crackdown on these autos and try to streamline their operations.

A few months back I had written an email to DCP (Traffic) and Commissioner of Police (Navi Mumbai) drawing their attention to the share autos plying with passengers beyond permissible limit. It was then that the Police Inspector of Kharghar unit shared some data with me explaining penalties collected from erring autos.

However, he had no answer when I asked him, if such drives/actions are taken why is it that the drivers still continue to drive with extra passengers and that too without following any traffic norms (like driving recklessly, signal jumping is quite rampant and it happens right under the nose of traffic cops on highway (below the Kharghar flyover). If action is taken and still there is no corrective behaviour it is a clear signal that the share auto drivers are giving a damn to police action. So God save law abiding citizens from the menace of such drivers.

In this regard, I would like to share an incident which took place on 17/10/2024, as I was waiting at the Patel Heritage signal around 7.15 PM to 7.30 PM, two police constables were busy nabbing helmetless two-wheeler riders (near Jaswant Sweets) but were not taking any action against share autos which were carrying 5-6 passengers (beyond permissible limit), giving a clear indication of the traffic cops being hand-in-glove with such autowallahs.  

Some of the autos which are plying in the node are scrapped vehicles from Mumbai region and not even fit to be on road. The fitness certificates of these vehicles have expired and still these vehicles continue to move on the road endangering lives of passengers and other road users.

No one is opposed to share autos, but it should be safety compliant for passengers and other drivers, pedestrians using the road.

If the personnel in RTO (Panvel) and Navi Mumbai traffic do their job sincerely, we can have safer roads in the node, else, programmes like Road Safety will be reduced to merely events.